95 Is The Dividing Line

If you're experiencing any existential crises, your motorcycle may lead you out of them. Your motorcycle will guide you past them, but only once you gear it up over 95. That's for a bike without windshield or fairing. I assume those things raise the point at which you have no choice but to focus your attention on the bike and nothing else.

At some point I am going to have a talk with the Good Lord about why He built the world in such a way that these things are necessary. But maybe He did it just so we could ride motorcycles like this in something like good conscience. Not all the time. Mostly it's a sin that I've ridden this way, and Lord knows I've ridden like this a lot.

10 comments:

Tom
said...

Well, I confess my sins to you.

Ha! Lot of good that will do you among this band of outlaws and ne'er-do-wells!

I find cycling in traffic and a couple hours team-rowing on the river help, but maybe not for a genuine existential crisis. Playing Go, practicing archery, and sparring / grappling used to help, but it's been a long time since I've done those things.

Go sounds like the complete opposite of riding 95 down the road, but it is an amazingly absorbing game. There's a story about two men who sat down to play one fine afternoon and became so engrossed in the game that they turned to stone.

For a while I thought playing EVE Online might replace it for me, but in the end there are too many distractions in that game. The physical components and rules of Go -- the things you have to know to play -- are very limited. It is the strategies and tactics, the things to think through and be creative about, that are nearly infinite. As such, you cannot rely on better tools to make up for lack of skill.

I've played games of Go where my heart was pounding in the endgame as if I were running a race. A well-played game is a joy.

I find aggressive and dangerous physical activity focuses the mind, forcing you to think about where you are and what you are doing. But eventually, you just have to deal with whatever it is. That's what I'm doing now.

Thank you. The matter was provoked by unexpected organ failure in a beloved family member, but the prognosis is better this morning. You always know that the people close to you are going to die, but somehow it can still catch you off guard.

Coincidentally, NPR had a story this a.m. about NIH proposing a policy that would allow funding of experiments to create embryos with both animal and human cells, known as "chimeras."

One purpose could be to "grow" replacement organs suitable for humans.http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/04/488387729/nih-plans-to-lift-ban-on-research-funds-for-part-human-part-animal-embryos

Creation of chimeras doesn't excite me: despite the immediately perceived benefits, the ethical considerations, scientific boundaries, and opportunities for abuse are myriad, and I doubt that oversight can ever be complete enough to avoid the unthinkable.

I did find it interesting, though, to briefly consider that it's likely that many of the people who probably will/would approve of this human/animal cell experimentation are the same ones who recoil in disgust from GMO "tainted" food items.

'Tis true, Eric. On the other hand, the consequences to screwing around with the building blocks of humanity could well span the spectrum from replacement lungs to a totally new species of genus homo. ...playing God, as it were.

(While typing that, I got a vision of centaurs and sphinx.... Who knows?)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hybrid_creatures_in_mythology

We're already doing that, CC, with organ donor markings, organ transplants, and playing games with immune systems to make the transplants take. And with gene therapy to correct genetic diseases. And with genetic research, which underlies all of our medical advances.

I'd be more worried about playing God if we were skipping ahead without the intermediate practice opportunities. We do tend to get ahead of ourselves, but not overmuch. The gains are worth the risks.